Chapter Summaries

Lin Xiaomeng found Silent Hill’s atmosphere promising but was disappointed when guns and combat made it feel like a routine monster-fighting game. Meanwhile, Hao Xianming struggled through Outlast’s basement, escaped a relentless lunatic, restored the asylum’s power, and was forcibly disconnected after his vital signs and mental stability deteriorated.

• Lin Xiaomeng used a gun to kill the monsters that cornered her in Silent Hill, then continued through the town collecting ammunition and clues.
• Lin Xiaomeng judged Silent Hill’s opening atmosphere effective but found its repeated alarms, combat, and staged scares disappointing.
• Hao Xianming hid from a spiked-club-wielding lunatic in the basement of Mount Massive Asylum, then explored its files and learned about the Mukov Group’s Valerid experiments.
• Hao Xianming restarted the second gas pump, but the lunatic ambushed him and chased him through the dark basement.
• Hao Xianming reached the main control console, restored the asylum’s power, and escaped to the first floor.
• Hao Xianming collapsed, triggering an automatic sensory-link disconnect, and called Gu Sheng the King of Horror.

Shen Miaomiao watched streamers flee the asylum before Gu Sheng challenged her to try the game herself. She entered at an autosave point, made it through several dark passages, and ended up facing two armed men rushing toward her.

• Shen Miaomiao observed players run through the asylum and asked Gu Sheng how they navigated its twisting maps.
• After Gu Sheng teased her about being afraid, Shen Miaomiao insisted on playing and asked him to load the game at Chun Hei’s sewer escape checkpoint.
• Gu Sheng set up the immersion pod and projection, then watched as Shen Miaomiao entered the game.
• Shen Miaomiao pushed crates aside, crawled past a straitjacketed patient, and charged through a dark corridor, an operating room, and a ventilation duct.
• In a ventilation room, a patient suddenly screamed for meat, and two burly men carrying steel blades rushed toward Shen Miaomiao.

Shen Miaomiao and Yun Zai endured a terrifying chase through the asylum before Yun Zai was captured by a deranged doctor. The chapter left Yun Zai strapped into a wheelchair in a bloodstained operating room, facing a table of surgical tools.

• Shen Miaomiao fled a horde of armed lunatics through the asylum, using the game's frightening obstacles to guide her escape route.
• Shen Miaomiao reached a dumbwaiter and climbed inside, but a scarred old man punched her when it stopped, triggering her automatic disconnect from the sensory link.
• Yun Zai was struck by the old man, strapped into a wheelchair, and pushed deeper into the hospital despite pleading to go outside.
• Yun Zai saw a security guard bound to a bed while the doctor performed a gruesome procedure on him.
• The doctor wheeled Yun Zai into a small operating room and left her facing a bloodstained table of surgical instruments.

Yun Zai’s livestream ended after the doctor cut off two of her fingers in the full-sensory version of Outlast, while Lin Xiaomeng and Hao Xianming continued playing to finish their review. Hao Xianming found the elevator key and was still escaping the doctor when the chapter ended.

• The doctor restrained Yun Zai, cut off her right index finger and left ring finger, and made her scream that people could die before her livestream ended.
• The finger-cutting scene terrified players and streamers, while Lin Xiaomeng and Hao Xianming completed their review and judged Outlast superior to Silent Hill.
• Hao Xianming escaped the operating room with Lin Xiaomeng’s guidance and continued exploring Mount Massive Asylum as they uncovered the Mukov Group’s experiments and the Valerid Project.
• Hao Xianming and Lin Xiaomeng spotted the elevator key behind the doctor, lured him away, and Hao Xianming grabbed it from the nurses’ station.
• The doctor climbed through the nurses’ station window after Hao Xianming, and Lin Xiaomeng urged him to flee through the doorway.

Jimmy Lawrence urged Will Brown to use GDC’s vacant China invitation spot for Golden Wind, arguing that the conference needed new ideas and cinematic game development expertise. Meanwhile, pew discovered that the invisible Valerid was a ghost-like result of Murkoff’s research and reached the chapel, where Father Martin had hanged himself.

• Jimmy Lawrence praised Golden Wind’s storytelling while watching pew escape the doctor by crushing him in an elevator.
• Jimmy proposed inviting Golden Wind to GDC, and Will Brown considered the idea after hearing a suggested talk about creating cinematic games.
• pew crossed Mount Massive Asylum’s stormy back garden and encountered a floating, black figure visible through his DV camera.
• pew connected the clues and realized the figure was Valerid, which he believed the Murkoff Group was creating through its research.
• Players retrieved Miles’s fallen DV camera while evading Valerid, and pew eventually reached the chapel, where Father Martin had hanged himself on a cross.

Miles uncovered Mukov’s underground Valerid research facility and learned that the elderly man in the wheelchair had helped create the uncontrollable weapon. After Miles destroyed Billy and stopped Valerid, the old man’s soldiers confronted him and aimed their guns at him.

• Miles descended past the asylum’s first floor and discovered Mukov’s underground research facility, where Valerid attacked him and the fat man seized him before Valerid killed the fat man.
• Miles met the elderly man behind blastproof glass, learned that Billy was Valerid’s living host, and recorded the old man’s explanation of Mukov’s nanobot experiments.
• Miles fled Valerid through the research facility and shut off the nutrient supply valves, weakening the creature.
• Miles pulled the main power cable but Valerid attacked and left him severely injured; he then reached the control console and killed Billy, making Valerid vanish.
• Miles crawled toward the exit, where armed soldiers led by the old man blocked the door and aimed their guns at him.

Miles and Willen Parker escaped Mount Massive Asylum as Valerid killed the armed men, and Miles vowed to investigate disappearances near Baker Farm in Louisiana. After players celebrated Outlast’s emotional ending and speculated about Parker’s story and a sequel, Gu Sheng prepared for bed while Little Nezha asked to talk.

• Valerid attacked the armed men, and one of their bullets killed the wheelchair-bound mastermind.
• Miles rescued Willen Parker from a suited attacker, and they escaped Mount Massive Asylum together.
• Miles’s closing narration said the Mukov Group was under investigation and hinted that he would investigate disappearances near Baker Farm in Louisiana.
• Players praised Outlast’s story and tribute to journalists, discussed its ending, and speculated about a Parker DLC and Miles’s next investigation.
• Gu Sheng prepared to sleep after watching the ending with Little Nezha, who asked him if they could talk.

Yamamoto Tsuna discovered that Silent Hill had been crushed by Outlast, while his other projects also suffered major sales declines, putting his position at Komeila in jeopardy. Meanwhile, Shen Miaomiao accidentally gave Gu Sheng a black eye in her sleep, and Gu Sheng made her laugh while treating it.

• Shen Miaomiao asked Gu Sheng to sleep on the couch with her because she feared nightmares after their Outlast experience.
• Shen Miaomiao kicked Gu Sheng in the eye while dreaming, leaving him with a swollen bruise.
• Jouetsu Kagemasa confronted Yamamoto Tsuna with sales reports showing Silent Hill had sold 3,000 copies in twelve hours, compared with Outlast's 18,000.
• Yamamoto saw that Yakuza Rampage's estimated first-day sales had fallen by nearly half and that other Komeila releases had also lost sales.
• Yamamoto realized Jouetsu might make him take the blame for Komeila's losses and rushed after him to explain.
• Shen Miaomiao applied medicine to Gu Sheng's eye, then burst out laughing when he teased her about the kick and accused her of breaking their promise.

Shen Miaomiao persuaded Gu Sheng to delay the Whistleblower DLC until Friday evening, hoping to protect her expected system payout, while Gu Sheng wrestled with what their co-living arrangement meant for their relationship. The three Golden Wind executives agreed on the DLC timing and began discussing their next project, but Chu Qingzhou interrupted with an invitation requiring Gu Sheng’s decision.

• Shen Miaomiao convinced Gu Sheng to release the Whistleblower DLC at 8 p.m. Friday, and he agreed to follow her suggestion.
• Gu Sheng told Da Jiang and Lu Bian how Shen Miaomiao had given him a black eye, and the three joked together over breakfast.
• Lu Bian and Da Jiang urged Gu Sheng to decide what he wanted from his co-living arrangement with Shen Miaomiao, but Gu Sheng remained uncertain about taking their relationship further.
• Gu Sheng confirmed the DLC’s Friday evening release time and proposed using the upgraded Motion Assist system in Golden Wind’s next project against Komeila.
• Chu Qingzhou arrived and told Gu Sheng that CEO Shen wanted him in her office to decide how to respond to an invitation.

Golden Wind received an exceptional invitation to the Global Game Developers Conference, and Gu Sheng decided the company would use the event to build its international reputation. While searching for a cinematic game idea, he took Shen Miaomiao’s suggestion of The Shawshank Redemption as inspiration and chose to make a prison escape game.

• Shen Miaomiao showed Gu Sheng GDC’s invitation, which praised Golden Wind’s games and asked him to speak about cinematic games.
• Gu Sheng explained that GDC was a prestigious global industry event and planned to use it as a foothold for Golden Wind’s international expansion.
• Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao discussed preparing a new cinematic game for the conference, while Gu Sheng considered several possible titles.
• Shen Miaomiao suggested The Shawshank Redemption, and Gu Sheng decided to make a game in which players were imprisoned and had to find a way to escape.

Gu Sheng pitched Escape Together, a story-focused two-player co-op prison-break game, as Golden Wind’s next project and completed its proposal for GDC. As Outlast’s Whistleblower DLC went live, Shen Miaomiao watched the sales figures, expecting the game to fall short of her predicted losses.

• Gu Sheng gathered Golden Wind’s executives and introduced a prison-break game built around two players, dual perspectives, and a shared story.
• Jiang Yun described an earlier Prison Break game whose excessive quests, poor optimization, and bugs had driven players away.
• Gu Sheng named the new project Escape Together and began adapting it for full-dive sensory pods, treating it as a trial run for a later co-op game.
• Gu Sheng finished the proposal on Friday, and Shen Miaomiao reminded him that the Whistleblower DLC was about to launch.
• Shen Miaomiao revealed she had checked Outlast’s sales: it had sold 1.03 million copies in six days, still below the costs she hoped the game would fail to recoup.

Shen Miaomiao celebrated Outlast’s first-week sales, expecting the project to lose money, but the system reported a small profit because ArtPlay had waived its commission. Yan Sheng explained that Yiyou’s board approved the waiver to strengthen its relationship with Golden Wind, leaving Shen Miaomiao devastated over the lost rebate.

• Shen Miaomiao watched Outlast’s first-week sales reach 1.165 million copies and expected the project to lose money.
• The system settled the project with actual revenue of $18.204 million against an $18.15 million investment, leaving Shen Miaomiao confused about the apparent profit.
• Shen Miaomiao compared Huayudian’s SwiftVine and ArtPlay figures and realized the settlement total combined SwiftVine revenue after its cut with ArtPlay revenue before its cut.
• Shen Miaomiao called Yan Sheng, who confirmed that ArtPlay had waived its commission after the board approved the policy as a gesture toward Golden Wind.
• Shen Miaomiao lamented losing the potential $1.3 billion rebate and vowed to watch out for Yan Sheng.

Outlast and its Whistleblower DLC became major hits, while Silent Hill’s failure led Yamamoto Tsuna to leave Komeila and drew renewed attention to Golden Wind’s influence. At Golden Wind, Shen Miaomiao and Gu Sheng launched the new Escape Together project, with Shen urging the team not to fear spending.

• Whistleblower expanded Outlast’s story, following Willen Parker’s escape from Mount Massive Asylum alongside Miles, and earned strong reviews alongside the main game.
• Outlast sold 1.16 million copies in its first week, while Silent Hill faded from public attention after its failure.
• Komeila announced that Yamamoto Tsuna had resigned and would travel to America for further study, prompting speculation that he had been made to take the blame for Silent Hill’s losses.
• Players and industry figures discussed how Golden Wind’s success had damaged Komeila and demonstrated the company’s growing influence.
• Shen Miaomiao prepared to finalize the Escape Together project order and focused on inheriting its 100x rebate multiplier.
• Gu Sheng presented the Escape Together proposal to the project team, and Shen Miaomiao told them not to be afraid to spend.

At GDC, Gu Sheng unveiled Golden Wind’s new cooperative cinematic game, Escape Together, and introduced a live gameplay demonstration with Shen Miaomiao. The chapter ended as he invited her onto the stage to join him.

• Shen Wanlin advised Gu Sheng to avoid another horror game for GDC, and Gu Sheng explained that his next horror project depended on acquiring overseas IP rights.
• At the GDC Asian developers’ presentations, Gu Sheng played Gomoku with Shen Miaomiao backstage before being called onstage.
• A trailer showcased Escape Together’s split-screen story of Vincent and Leo working together to escape prison.
• Gu Sheng presented Escape Together as a two-player cooperative interactive movie game and explained its cinematic approach to the audience.
• Gu Sheng invited Golden Wind Game President Shen Miaomiao to join him for a live gameplay demonstration.

At GDC, Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao unveiled Golden Wind’s new game, Escape Together, and demonstrated its cinematic split-screen presentation. The showcase ended with the two protagonists meeting in adjacent prison cells, leaving the industry audience stunned by the game’s camera work.

• Gu Sheng introduced a live demonstration with Shen Miaomiao, who joined him onstage and announced Golden Wind’s new title, Escape Together.
• Shen Miaomiao chose to play Leo, while Gu Sheng took the role of Vincent, the game’s two prisoners and protagonists.
• The opening sequence showed a prison transport arriving at Michigan State Penitentiary in 1972, then transitioned seamlessly from cinematic footage to Shen Miaomiao’s gameplay view.
• Gu Sheng’s perspective appeared alongside Shen Miaomiao’s in a split-screen display, with the screen enlarging whichever character’s story took the lead.
• When Leo and Vincent first met in the prison, their separate views merged into one frame, drawing amazed reactions from the GDC audience.

At GDC, Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao showcased Escape Together, whose prison brawl and tense chisel-stealing sequence thrilled the audience. The demo ended with Leo and Vincent agreeing to work together to escape and target Harvey, while Golden Wind’s presentation became the conference’s biggest sensation ahead of the closing ceremony.

• Gu Sheng lured Shen Miaomiao into a prison-yard ambush, where she was beaten before she and Gu Sheng fought back against the bald man and his lackeys.
• The bald man attacked Shen Miaomiao again in the prison kitchen, but Gu Sheng intervened, and guards beat the bald man to death after he stabbed a prison guard.
• Leo persuaded Vincent to distract the nurse while Shen Miaomiao stole a chisel from the infirmary office and narrowly avoided being discovered by a guard.
• Vincent confronted Leo about Harvey, revealed that Harvey had killed someone important to him, and said he intended to kill him too.
• Leo secretly told Vincent to follow his lead, and the Escape Together demo ended as the GDC audience erupted in applause and Golden Wind drew widespread acclaim.

After Escape Together won GDC’s Most Anticipated Game award, Gu Sheng planned to build Golden Wind into the world’s leading game company. Shen Miaomiao agreed to expand the company by hiring seven former Yamamoto Studio employees, and news that Golden Wind was opening a second studio spread through the industry.

• Golden Wind received GDC’s Most Anticipated Game award for Escape Together, drawing excitement from Chinese players and media.
• Gu Sheng added the award to his new display cabinet and told Shen Miaomiao he intended to fill it with industry honors.
• Shen Miaomiao told Gu Sheng that Yuki and Sato wanted to bring seven former Yamamoto Studio colleagues to Golden Wind, and Gu Sheng said he would accept them.
• Gu Sheng and Shen Miaomiao agreed to expand Golden Wind into a second studio group and pursue multiple projects in parallel.
• Gu Sheng took Shen Miaomiao to catch new-flavor lollipops, while news of Golden Wind’s expansion became a top topic on the developers’ forum.

Golden Wind announced its second studio, Steel Chain Fingers, and reorganized its staff around the new team. Yan Sheng invited Gu Sheng to enter Yiyou’s Mini-Game Festival with a PC-and-mobile cross-play game, and Gu Sheng agreed, leaving Yan Sheng curious about the studio’s name.

• Golden Wind announced Steel Chain Fingers, formed by Sato, Yuki, and seven former Komeila developers, while Jiang Yun led Golden Experience and Gu Sheng, Lu Bian, and Xu Dajiang became directors across both studios.
• Yan Sheng visited Shen Miaomiao and Gu Sheng to congratulate Golden Wind, prompting Shen Miaomiao to resent his praise and Gu Sheng’s thanks for Yiyou’s support.
• Yan Sheng invited Golden Wind to join Yiyou’s tenth Mini-Game Festival and its new overseas expansion plan, which would promote the top ten games abroad.
• Yan Sheng asked Golden Wind to make a game with synchronized PC and mobile play, and Gu Sheng agreed to have Steel Chain Fingers develop it.
• As Yan Sheng left, he asked Gu Sheng what the name Steel Chain Fingers meant.

Gu Sheng decided to break away from conventional tower defense for Steel Chain Fingers Studio’s next mini-game and introduced a child-friendly Plants vs. Zombies concept. The team prepared to develop the game, while Shen Miaomiao supported the new direction.

• Shen Miaomiao explained the meanings behind Golden Experience and Steel Chain Fingers to Yan Sheng, and Gu Sheng confirmed her explanation.
• Over milk tea, Shen Miaomiao suggested making a tower-defense game, prompting Gu Sheng to consider how to innovate on the familiar genre.
• Gu Sheng told Steel Chain Fingers Studio to make a mini-game about protecting brains from zombies, and the staff proposed a conventional tower-defense design.
• Gu Sheng rejected the team’s initial design as too similar to existing games and asked why tower defense had to use towers.
• Gu Sheng revealed a Plants vs. Zombies game concept, with plants defending a garden from comical zombies, and proposed making it child-friendly.

Steel Chain Fingers questioned Plants vs. Zombies’ unconventional style and mechanics, while Shen Miaomiao finalized a rebate slip expecting the game might lose money. As the overseas mini-game event began, she watched the launch livestream with Gu Sheng, where the host reacted to the game’s title.

• Yuki and the members of Steel Chain Fingers questioned the cartoon art, single terrain, and destructible plant defenses in Plants vs. Zombies.
• Shen Miaomiao backed Gu Sheng’s project, and Golden Wind’s overseas mini-game partnership drew media coverage and player discussion.
• Shen Miaomiao raised the settlement period and rebate multiplier for Plants vs. Zombies, then locked the slip at 12 days and 15x.
• Yiyou’s Overseas Expansion Plan for Mini-Games launched, and Shen Miaomiao watched the livestream with Gu Sheng rather than buying the game herself.
• The livestream host greeted viewers and mocked the name Plants vs. Zombies.